Farmers hit by government neglect: Naidu

ANANTAPUR: Squarely blaming the Congress government for the present predicament of farmers in the state, Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu, who hit the road with his Rythu Porubata to highlight the cause of farmers, said there is an urgent need to rescue the debt-ridden agriculturists of Anantapur district which is facing an unprecedented drought in the recent times.Except last year, the district had been witnessing a drought situation for the past few years. “On an average, each farmer is stuck with a loan burden of Rs 4-5 lakh due to failed crops. The government needs to address their problems immediately,” he said, calling upon farmers to unite and wage a sustained battle against the government untill their problems were solved.Covering nine villages in the district during his Padayatra on Wednesday, the TDP chief tried to comfort the affected farmers saying he would fight on their behalf to get Rs 10,000 per acre compensation for crop loss, supply of quality seeds on subsidy and interest waiver on crop loans.Naidu visited dried up groundnut fields and sweet lime orchards in CC Kothakota, Nimmalakunta, Bathyampalle, Amudalakunta, Kanumukkala, Todapagampalle, Mailapalle, Nagasettypalle and Kothacheruvu and interacted with farmers who poured out their woes. They had taken loans to raise crops which failed forcing them to go for more loans for fresh crops and repayment of earlier loans and interest and thus landed themselves in a quagmire of debt, a farmer lamented. Some women farmers showed their dried up paddy crop and wept before him fearing for their future.It was during the TDP regime that input subsides for groundnut, micro irrigation programme and crop insurance were introduced. Through programmes like Neeru-Meeru, efforts were made to improve ground water availability. Whereas the current Congress government was neither bothered about checking sale of spurious seeds nor able to give necessary input subsidies. He emphasised the need for implementation of Swaminathan Committee recommendations.